Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
